ROME - An Italian journalist and self-described atheist who died last month has left most of her books and notes to a pontifical university in Rome because of her admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, a school official said Saturday.

Oriana Fallaci had described the pontiff as an ally in her campaign to rally Christians in Europe against what she saw as a Muslim crusade against the West. As she battled breast cancer last year, she had a private audience with Benedict, who was elected only a few months earlier, at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal: "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true."

Benedict was surprised by the gift of the books, which dated back as far as the 17th century and included volumes about the formation of modern-day Italy, American history, philosophy and theology, said Monsignor Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateranense University in Rome.

"The veneration that she had for you, Holy Father, persuaded her to make this donation, which will be known as the Oriana Fallaci Archives," Fisichella said during a ceremony at the university Saturday to announce the gift of the books, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Benedict greeted Fallaci's nephew and his family during the ceremony, then spoke briefly about the search for truth in science and academia. "God is the ultimate truth to which all reason naturally gravitates," he told an audience of students and faculty.

A few weeks before her death, Fallaci had some 20 boxes of books sent to the university, Fisichella later told The Associated Press. Books are still awaiting shipment from her homes in New York and Tuscany, he said, as well as her notes as a journalist.

Fisichella said "the pope has said we must live in the world as if God existed and she (Fallaci) took up the challenge."

After decades of conducting major interviews and covering wars as a correspondent for two of Italy's largest dailies, Fallaci concentrated her famous passion and energy in her last years on vehement attacks against a Muslim world she judged to be the enemy of Western civilization.

Absent from the publishing scene for nearly a decade, Fallaci burst back into the spotlight after the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. with a series of blistering essays in which she argued that Muslims were carrying out a crusade against the Christian West.

At the time of her death, she was on trial in northern Italy, accused of defaming Islam in her 2004 book, "The Strength of Reason." In it she argued that Europe had sold its soul to what she called an Islamic invasion.

Fallaci had also taken the Catholic Church to task for being what she considered too weak before the Muslim world, despite her praise of Benedict.

She died three days after the pope delivered a speech at a German university in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

The speech sparked anger in the Muslim world, prompting Benedict to express regrets and say the words did not reflect his personal opinion.

Benedict, who has been calling for more dialogue between Muslims and Christians, will make his first pilgrimage as pontiff to a predominantly Muslim country when he visits Turkey in November.

"God is the ultimate truth to which all reason naturally gravitates," he told an audience of students and faculty.

The same conclusion that Thomas Nagel comes to, but doesn't want to admit, in his book "The Last Word." There can be no such thing as universal truth unless there is some real foundation for it. Nagel is also an atheist, but, like Fallaci, a lover of the truth who has dedicated himself like Socrates to the pursuit of truth, wherever the search may lead.

At the time of her death, she was on trial in northern Italy, accused of defaming Islam in her 2004 book, "The Strength of Reason." In it she argued that Europe had sold its soul to what she called an Islamic invasion.

The very fact that she was on trial for "defaming Islam" proves her point.

11
posted on 10/21/2006 10:34:44 AM PDT
by Wilhelm Tell
(True or False? This is not a tag line.)

The Fight is On

The fight is on, the trumpet sound is ringing out, The cry To arms! is heard afar and near; The Lord of hosts is marching on to victory, The triumph of the Christ will soon appear.

Refrain

The fight is on, O Christian soldier, And face to face in stern array, With armor gleaming, and colors streaming, The right and wrong engage today! The fight is on, but be not weary; Be strong, and in His might hold fast; If God be for us, His banner oer us, Well sing the victors song at last!

The fight is on, arouse, ye soldiers brave and true! Jehovah leads, and victory will assure; Go buckle on the armor God has given you, And in His strength unto the end endure.

Refrain

The Lord is leading on to certain victory; The bow of promise spans the eastern sky; His glorious Name in every land shall honored be; The morn will break, the dawn of peace is nigh.

"Fallaci was a better Catholic than most Catholics are nowadays. RIP."

I must remember to keep praying for her, this brave and intelligent lady. I hope that in the end she was reconciled with Jesus Chriest through the Catholic Church. Inasmuch as she was devoted to the Truth, she will have nothing to fear.

28
posted on 10/23/2006 12:56:01 PM PDT
by Mrs. Don-o
(Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Justice, for they shall be satisfied.)

"I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true."

AP - Sat Oct 21, 9:10 PM ET Italian veteran journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci is shown in this 2002 file photo. Fallaci, a self-described atheist who died last month has left most of her books and notes to a pontifical university in Rome because of her admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, a school official said Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Gianangelo Pistoia, file)

Oriana Fallaci is a truly great warrior for the Western Civilization against Islamic threat. I don't want to speak of her in the past tense because her bravery inspires those who fight Islamization of Europe and the Western world. Authors and activists like Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, Bat Yeor, Salman Rushdie, Ayan Hirsi Ali and others who spoke courageously on the true nature of Islam are Fallaci's representatives and they all deserve our support and admiration.

Italy, on the other hand, is a very old country. Its history goes back at least three thousand years. Its cultural identity is thus very preciseand lets not beat around the bush: that identity has quite a bit to do with a religion called Christian religion and a church called the Catholic Church.

People like me have a nice little saying: theCatholicchurchhasnothingtodowithme. But boy does it have to do with me. Whether I like it or not, it has to do with me. And how could it not? I was born into a landscape of churches, convents, Christs, Madonnas, Saints. The first music I heard coming into the world was the music of church bells. Those bells of Santa Maria del Fiore that were smothered by the uncouth voice of the muezzin during the Tent Age. And I grew up in that music, in that landscape. And it was through that music and that landscape that I learned what architecture is, what sculpture is, what painting is, what art is. It was through that church (which I later rejected) that I began to ask myself what is Good, what is Evil, and by God...

There: you see? I wrote "by God" again. With all my secularism, all my atheism, I am so imbued with Catholic culture that its even part of my way of expressing myself. Oh God, my God, thank God, by God, sweet Jesus, good God, Mother Mary, here a Christ, there a Christ. These words come so spontaneously to me that I dont even realize Im speaking or writing them. And you want me to lay it all out? Even if Ive never pardoned Catholicism for the infamies it inflicted on me for centuries, starting with the Inquisition that burned even my grandmotherpoor grandmother!even if Ive never gotten along well with priests and have no use for their prayers, all the same I really love the music of church bells. It caresses my heart. I also love those painted or sculpted Christs and Madonnas and Saints. In fact I have a thing for icons. I also love monasteries and convents. They give me a sense of peace, and sometimes I envy those inside. And then lets admit it: our cathedrals are more beautiful than mosques and synagogues. Yes or no? Theyre also more beautiful than Protestant churches.

Look, my familys cemetery is Protestant. It accepts the dead of all religions but its Protestant. And one of my greatgrandmothers was Walensian. One of my greataunts, Evangelist. I never knew my Walensian greatgrandmother. But I did know the Evangelist greataunt. When I was a little girl she would always take me to her church functions in Via de Benci at Florence, and...God, how bored I was! I felt so alone with those faithful who did nothing but sing psalms, that priest who wasnt a priest and did nothing but read the Bible, that church that didnt seem like a church and apart from a little pulpit had nothing but a big crucifix. No angels, no Madonnas, no incense. I even missed the smell of incense, and would rather have been in the nearby Basilica di Santa Croce where they had these things. The things I was used to. And Ill say more: in my country house, in Tuscany, there is a tiny little chapel. Its always closed. No one goes there since my mother died. But I go there sometimes, to dust, to make sure the mice havent made a nest, and despite my secular upbringing I feel comfortable there. Despite my priesthating tendencies, I move there with casual ease. And I believe that the vast majority of Italians would confess the same thing. (Even Berlinguer, the head of the Italian Communist Party, confessed as much to me.)

Her act is most admirable, but I doubt will not gain her any points with the Big Guy on her Big Day.

************

Admirable? Perhaps. I would hope that it was more than that. It was a leap of faith-a belief that transcended all of the doubt that she had previously felt. I hope that God, who is far more forgiving than I, can forgive this woman who, at the very end of her life, displayed more faith than many.

38
posted on 10/23/2006 6:11:43 PM PDT
by trisham
(Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)

If La Fallaci, in her suffering and declining days, found herself thinking about where her real alliances should be; and if she decided she'd like to do what she could for someone who spoke to her of Christ, for Christ, and in the name of Christ (as Papa Benedict did), I'd like to hope that with her last breath she might have said, "For you, Christ! Have mercy on me! Save me! I am for your people, and for You!"

Oh, it's not a matter of gaining points. God is very, very crafty about saving people; He's brilliant at it; Savior is His name.

42
posted on 10/23/2006 7:21:53 PM PDT
by Mrs. Don-o
("Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy Mercy. .." Angel of Fatima.)

God's dealing with Oriana is His prerogative, not mine. But if you're going to quote scripture, don't truncate. Jesus also said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." You might have a look at John 3:16-18, too. God may have other options He hasn't shared with me, but I have to accept that the words He has shared have meaning.

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